Sharper New Year Goals – STP029

Episode 29  In this episode, we help you prepare for a sharper new YOU for next year by revisiting the subject of goals. We've produced a compilation episode on the subject, with all the really useful stuff from episodes 18 and 19.

If you'd like to listen to the FULL episodes, the links are here:



• Episode 18 (Why Your Goals Aren't Working) where we cover:
• The resource out there on setting goals
• 5 steps that many people agree on when setting successful goals
• 1) Visualising your goal – invoke all of your senses
• The brain’s link between sounds, smells and memory
• 2) Writing your goal down – using the S.M.A.R.T. acronym
• Be Specific about what the goal is
• Define how you would Measure whether you’ve achieved the goal
• Use ‘Action’ language – Do, Become, Develop
• Realistic – either take this literally and make the goals realistic or take the ‘Big Hairy Audacious’ approach and set really stretching goals. You decide!
• Set a Time limit to when you want to achieve the goal by
• 3) Sharing your goal
• Two schools of thought on this, make them public or keep them private. Here are two perspectives:
• Fast Company say make it public 
• Derek Sivers says keep them private
• 4) Break it down
• Be sure to split bigger goals into smaller steps
• Be clear on the NEXT step
• Make it something you can do within 24 hours
• 5) Plan
• Set yourself dates in the diary to review your progress AND to celebrate your success
• The one thing missing from most of the advice – WHY
• Why WHY?
• Never underestimate the power of stating the obvious
• 30 million people have given up smoking this way
• 5 whys, according to iSixSigma
• 5 whys, according to Toyota
• A version delivered from our kitchen table
• How you can make reviewing progress more satisfying
• Use a good planner to manage your progress – this is nice Action Day Academic Diary 17/18
• The importance of being flexible – your goals don’t have to be set in stone
• In fact, if you set the wrong ones and you’ve changed them, then the process works!
• Episode 19 (10 Great Ways To Track Your Goals) where we cover:
• Why it’s no good just deciding on your goals
• Apps and mobile-based resource can track and support your goals because your device is always with you
• We reviewed loads of different websites, blogs and resource to research what apps are out there
• We (I) found 95 different apps to consider
• So then I filtered them based on which ones got recommended the most
• In the episode, I talked about the top 5 – here they are:
• Coach.me
• Goals on track
• Strides
• Irunurun
• Lifetick
• Next up was a ‘paper-based’ resource – sometimes it’s just nice to write with a pen
• Especially if you’re in a field (or the field)
• The Self Journal – here’s the link
• While researching The Self Journal, I came across this video by Gillateen. He’s funny and cool
• My Pro Planner
• They had a nice video, too – here it is
• Action Day planners
• Two further bits of resource which are paper-based but not journals:
• Design the Life You Love by Ayshe Birsel – here’s the link
• Field Notes notebooks, my absolute fave – here they are
• Fisher Space pen can write upside down, underwater, or in the snow. So if you find yourself upside down in snowy water, it’s a must. Also, if you just want to have a handy small pen, it’s also a must. Again – here’s the link